On this episode of Into The Light with Cray Cait, I welcome a force to be reckoned with, a literal superwoman behind all things hyperbaric oxygen, and an amazing advocate for Edna and I and our clinic.

It's Shannon freakin' Kenitz, Executive Director of the International Hyperbaric Association (IHA). 

We are her first stop on a nationwide tour of Hyperbaric Oxygen Clinics to raise awareness for this incredible therapy and to help people take control of their own health. 

The IHA is a non-profit that promotes the use of hyperbaric oxygen for off label indications, focusing on conditions such as autism, cerebral palsy, stroke, and Parkinson's disease. The IHA supports many different types practitioners and clinics in order to help make Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) more accessible to everyone. They also fund research and treatments for families that can't afford HBOT.  

Shannon's HBOT journey started when her daughter, Grace, was diagnosed with a very rare mitochondrial disease, and her doctors told Shannon to let her daughter go.

But Shannon didn't give up. She knew that she had to do everything she possibly could before she would let Grace go. So she traveled from Wisconsin to Florida to start her daughter on HBOT. 

Although Grace was not expected to live past the age of 2, she just turned 22 this March. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy saved Grace's life, it gave Shannon her family back, and ultimately led her to taking over the IHA. 

There are so many more stories just like Grace's and the experience had led Shannon on a mission of educating the world on the benefits of HBOT and helping people understand that they can, and need to be, advocates for their own health. 

HBOT can help with a wide variety of neurological conditions, mental health conditions, addiction, GI issues, anti-aging, sports injuries, and so much more. Shannon has heard from too many families who have been inspired by her story, that have lost members of their own family, who just wish they had known about HBOT. 

It's time people knew!

Shannon Kenitz

IHA

2021 IHA Conference

In Light Hyperbarics

Business Over Beer 

TH3 Entertainment

Imperfectly thrive in a toxic world

Special Thanks to our Episode Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you by Dr. Kate Wiggin, Chief Medical officer of Naturopathic Health ConneXion and In Light Hyperbarics in Vancouver Washington. 

If you are you looking for a doctor that will listen to your concerns and address your unique medical issues, let Dr Kate and her more than 3 decades of medical training help you with your pain, inflammation, auto-immune disease, traumatic brain injury, cancer or any other complex medical issue with services ranging from Naturopathic and Homeopathic Medicine, IV Therapy, Light therapy, and Hyperbaric Oxygen.

Contact Dr. Kate so you can start feeling better today at 360-213-1226 or DrKateWiggin.com

Dr. Kate treats people, not diseases!

Episode 11: Living in a Toxic World & How to Reduce Your Toxic Burden

After my amazing interview with Dr. Alexander Borsand in Episode 10, there was still so much that I wanted to cover about living in a toxic world. The fact is we are surrounded by toxins of all kinds, some we can control and others we can't. 

I know that this may feel like like a dark and gloomy topic, but remember, I am giving you this information so you can be empowered to take control of your health. There is so much that we can control from within and implementing just a few of the suggestions in this episode can make a huge difference in the way you feel.  

And as always, remember, perfection is not the goal. It's about gaining the knowledge to do better for ourselves. 

We have the power friends!

Notes to help you tap into your inner healer:

• This episode focuses on physical toxins. 
• Physical toxins are man made toxins in our environment that might be impacting our health. 
• Understanding of the toxins that you encounter on a daily basis, you might realize that some health condition you have been experiencing may be a result of toxic overload that you can work to eliminate. 
• More than 95% of all chronic disease is caused by food choice, toxic ingredients, nutritional deficiencies, and lack of physical exercise. 
• Skin care and household cleaning products fall into three categories: carcinogens, endocrine disrupters, neurotoxins. 
• If you can't eat it, don't put it on your skin.
• Toxic overload can lead to depression and daily detox habits can have a huge positive impact on mental health. 
• Why are we such a sick society? Here are some common toxins to be aware of:
  • Plastics, food that comes in plastic, aluminum cans, amalgam tooth fillings, microwaves, tap/unfiltered water, processed foods, skin care products, household cleaning products
  • The Toxic 12
  
  
• When looking to detoxify, it's best eliminate your toxic intake first, then replace with positive daily detox habits. 
• Detox with caution, ease into it. 
• Take your power back with daily detox habits:
  • Start with habits that improve your circulation. 
  • Repair you gastrointestinal system with probiotics, aloe vera, bone broth, collagen, celery juice, apple cider vinegar and clean water with lemon or cucumber. 
  • Daily Body Movement, like simple walking or yoga. Sweat promotes the release of toxins from your body. 
  • Detoxifying foods: Garlic, ginger, onions, turmeric/turmeric lattes, beets, cruciferous vegetables (glutathione), greens (chlorophyll), herbal teas.
  • Other detoxifying therapies: IV Therapy, chelation therapy, infrared sauna, dry skin brushing, and coffee enema. 
  
  

Crazy Cait's Apple Cider Vinegar Detox Tea Recipe:

1. Warm/hot water
2. 1 shot of organic apple cider vinegar
3. 1/2 a fresh lemon squeezed
4. teaspoon of honey
5. dash of cinnamon
6. dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

CLICK HERE FOR AN AMAZING RESOURCE that allows you to see what toxic ingredients are in your every day products; beauty, cosmetics, skincare, foods, etc. Also, and can type in your area code to see what contaminants are currently in your tap water!

Feed your wellness challenge:

1. Eliminate/Reduce 2 toxic habits. 
2. Add in 1 new daily detox habit. 

As always, let me know how it's...

On this episode of Into The Light with Crazy Cait, I welcome Dr. Alexander Borsand, M.D., a board certified physician in lifestyle medicine (ABLM). Lifestyle Medicine is about preventing, treating, and often times reversing, chronic disease and Dr. Borsand's main goal is working with his patients to get them off medication.  

I met Dr. Borsand recently at a Hyperbaric Oxygen Training Seminar, and we had an amazing discussion about creating daily detoxification habits to managing all the high level of toxins that we are surrounded with on a daily basis.  

Toxins are very real, and unfortunately, very unavoidable, in todays world and contribute to chronic disease. Avoiding and removing certain toxins from our life can have incredible health benefits. We only just scratched the surface, but Dr. Alexander provides a wide range of very practical and actionable steps that you can implement today to help you tap into your inner healer. 

Notes to help you Tap Into Your Inner Healer:

• Even as an Allopathic trained physician, Dr. Alexander recognizes some of the shortfalls of Western Medicine and has worked with other medical communities on ways to treat root cause.  
• When we talk about removing toxins from your life, we're not talking about one time or trendy detox diets, we're talking about daily lifestyle changes. 
• Top toxic contributors:
  • Air pollution - understanding that air pollution can move from state to state, even country to country, and educating ourselves on the causes and effects of air pollution and working with our governmental officials on improving air quality in our communities. 
  • Water - know what's in your water, choose filtration that works for you, stay hydrated. 
  • Nutrition - food is medicine, and medicine can be good or bad for you; gut health is extremely important to overall wellness, the gut biome is your second brain. 
  
  
• Ways to promote your body's natural ability to detoxify:
  • Sunscreen - the sunscreen that's best for you is the one you'll use. 
  • Increase antioxidants like vitamin c and vitamin e (especially good for the skin). 
  • Sweat - Promotes the release of toxins out of your cells and brings them out through your skin. Physical activity, and sauna, especially infrared sauna, which heats you up from the inside out vs a regular steam sauna which heats you up from the outside in. 
  • Educating ourselves - Increase your awareness of what's going into your body, what is actually good and actually bad. 
  • Fiber - It is very difficult to get enough fiber from diet alone, use psyllium husk supplpements and add bran fiber to your diet.  
  • Green tea extract - Helps with enzymes in your liver. 
  • Chlorophyll -  Helps with the oxygenation of your cells.
  • The Importance of Oxygen: Our bodies need 3 things to live: food, water, oxygen. If we stop eating food we can live for weeks, maybe months. If we stop drinking water we can live for days. If we stop taking in oxygen, we can only live for minutes, and our body has no reserve for it. 
  
  
• Understand that balance does not exist; think of a teeter totter, it constantly goes up and down and it never sits there and equalizes; we need to start thinking in terms of harmony, not balance

Episode links:

Serenity Hyberbaric Center

Lifestyle Medicine

Dr. Jason Sonners

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)